


Open Wings

by Mynaneistrash



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: BAMF Hyuuga Hinata, Gen, and hinata gets to tell off the elders, but she doesnt get enough pov spots in fics, i can only hope shes not ooc in this, idk i hope i characterized her right, we deal with the side branch issues in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:22:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27345772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mynaneistrash/pseuds/Mynaneistrash
Summary: Set in the Divided Worlds AU (No Adults Watching)The Adults have been missing for four months, and the village has slowly been adjusting to it’s new normal. Hinata has been Clan Head for four months.Hinata thinks it's time to do some good for the Branch Family with her new power.
Relationships: Hyuuga Hinata & Hyuuga Neji, Hyuuga Hinata & Nara Shikako
Comments: 18
Kudos: 317
Collections: Heliocentrism — a Dreaming of Sunshine recursive collection





	Open Wings

Leadership has never come easily to Hinata. She’s never liked the spotlight, and she crumbles all too quickly under the weight of the elder’s expectations for her. ( _Under the weight of Father’s disappointed gaze_.) But even if Hanabi has always flourished under the eyes of the clan, Hinata knows that her sister is too young to carry the burden.

Hanabi is still a child, not even out of the academy yet, and she cannot lead the clan.

So Hinata must.

* * *

It is four months after The Vanishing that Hinata makes her request. (Her desperate plea)

“I know that things have been hectic lately, especially for you, but I wanted to know if you would be able to take a look at the Caged Bird Seal?”

Shikako starts, the request obviously catching her off guard. She looks at Hinata, who stares back determinedly, and Neji is shifting on his feet. (He is professional enough, but she knows it's a request that caught him off guard as well. She had not spoken to him about what she had been planning to ask.)

There is a moment of silence, and it takes everything in Hinata not to desperately try and take the words back. She watches as several emotions flit through Shikako’s face.

(Hesitance to get involved in another clan’s affairs, fear of dealing with the inevitable backlash if she goes through with it, something unidentifiable - grief maybe?- but it’s only there for a few moments so Hinata doesn’t have the time to try and figure them all out)

Shikako’s face settles on something not quite blank, but it’s different in all the wrong ways. The silence stretches on.

Shikako is one of Hinata’s oldest friends, and Hinata is _so_ terrified she’ll say no.

Eventually, the blankness fades away and reveals an older and more weary expression. One that didn’t belong on a fifteen year old, (and there isn’t a day that goes by where Hinata doesn’t worry for the girl they made Interim Hokage) but it’s also more _Shikako_ so Hinata can take what she can get. 

“I can’t” she says slowly, and Hinata’s heart sinks, but Shikako’s next words fill her with hope, “I can’t work on a counter seal. Not unless you can get me records more information on the actual seal.”

Shikako’s eyes are hesitant and the girl looks fairly overwhelmed, but something changes as she looks between her and Neji. Something determined.

“If you can get me access to that, I’ll see what I can do.”

Hinata wonders if the other girl knows how much _I’ll see what I can do_ means to her.

* * *

On the one year anniversary of The Vanishing, Shikako finishes the counter seal for the Caged Bird seal.

(As it turned out, the tattoo on every Branch Member’s forehead doubled as a symbol for the seal matrix. Which had greatly helped Shikako out once it was discovered that the actual notes on them were hidden behind a blood encrypted seal that Hinata had yet to be added to.)

There is something symbolic in the design that Shikako chooses to compress the seal into. A bird mid flight, tattooed onto the back of every branch member’s neck.

(Two months later, after Shikako mentions that it can serve the same purpose as the Caged Bird Seal in preventing eye theft, Hinata makes it mandatory for everyone to get them.)

With Shikako’s help, Hinata has done what her father failed to do, and she can never hope to repay her.

* * *

Two years after The Vanishing, the adults return.

(Later, they will learn that it was the combined efforts of Shikako, Tenten, and anyone else who knew how to make their own seals in the five great shinobi villages. But that does not matter until long after all the adults return.)

For most, it is a joyous reunion.

For the children of the Hyuuga, it is terrifying. (They don’t tell the adults of their newfound freedom. They are all ninja in their own right, but the old fear of runs deep. They have yet to test the effectiveness of the new seal, and do not want to.)

It only takes three days for the elders to find out.

* * *

‘Hinata _explain yourself_ ”

There is a child cowering behind her (Yui, her brain supplies) but all she can focus on is the warring terror and anger in her heart. (Hinata has never been angry at an elder before. Always afraid but never angry. Her anger is justified.)

Yui had been barely eight, and yet the elder in front of her had the audacity to try and use the Caged Bird against her. 

“No.”

(She has never just said, no before. It's freeing. It's terrifying.)

They are in the middle of the compound, and it will not be soon before they are joined by others. But Hinata stands firm. She made her decision years ago, and she stands by it.

“The Caged Bird Seal is _not_ something to be toyed with. It is for the safety of the clan. You will tell me what you’ve done to _them_ so that it may be reversed.”

It is the contempt that he speaks the word them that drives her to speak, even as a crowd begins to form.

“No, Elder Akira, it was a _tool_ used to control the Branch family. I will not be a part of it, and I will not reverse my actions. The new seal protects our Doujutsu just as well as the old one did.”

The crowd has formed into three separate groups now. Those in the main family who had Vanished, those in the Branch family who had been Vanished, and the children. The fear and tension from the past few days had all culminated into this one event.

“You did not have the _authority_ to make such a decision. You are young and naive.”

“And who was to stop me?” She asks, her voice low but all the more dangerous for it “I was the clan head, and I had to care for _my_ kinsmen. You only cared for tradition and power.”

Someone goes to say something, but she cuts them off swiftly, “I will not be going back on my decision, and I will not be shamed for it. If the Hyuuga clan refuses to accept it, then we will leave.”

Without the Caged Seal to hold over them, the elders are grasping at straws and they know it. They turn to Hinata’s father in a desperate attempt to get him to say something. He is not looking at them.

Instead he stares at Hinata with an unreadable expression, before turning and walking away.

(It is, perhaps, the closest thing she has ever gotten to approval from her father.)

**Author's Note:**

> Expect a bunch of my other fics to update this week. New marking period means 1 week free of AP BS so yay! Ive always wanted to write for Divided Worlds, so maybe ill come back to this universe, make it a series or something. ive got ideas. Also Hiashi is highkey jealous that Hinata found a solution to a problem that he couldnt, he's also lowkey proud. Hes just constantly emotionally constipated.


End file.
